The Armour Archive

one in black is male, th iolet nad white one is a kabuki face for female helm. open to critique. sorry the pics are a bit fuzzy

I've seen these up close. They are both very nicely done.

Really sharp. I so dig that style of helmet. Always have.

VERY nicely done! So, if one were to commision such a kabuto, say in the zunari style, what would the ball-park figure be?

by zunari your referring to the broad dorsal plate with 2 large dished side plates, and a taller, more corled front visor, then I can try. to be honest, these are my first 2 attempts at Japanese helms. my knight is sir Saito - of japanese persona, and i origionally wanted to make one so his lady's helm would be comparable to his great kabuto. I made a second since the 16 piece patterned top I worked out looked so cool and easy since I got ahold of a whitney punch. I am asking between 400 and 450 for these type, depending upon detailing (like roped edges, more detail in mempho, etc.) I painted the purple one, and blued/blackened the male one. I would eventually like to try powder coating for japanese helms.
The mempho's are fixed/non removable. the laced lames around th helm are different material. the ladies is kydex, the male is 12 oz. black leather, tooled and punched. I did this to reduce weight and add movement. The leather turned out much nicer than I planned. I cant wait to see his with the blue/silver lacing he's using.

Quick note...

You *do* know that the Japanese didn't do strip-spangens, right?

It's a pretty helmet, but it's not Japanese. It's Japanese *inspired*.



Effingham

yes, but I have notes several spangen origionated Japanese "style" helkms, and yes, they looked ok to the un-historical eye. However, my origional insiration came from a museum pic that had 16 thin pannels in a spiral to form a dome...each with the outside right edge raised up to create a 1/4" fin type line to the point. VERY nice. so I worked out my passion for spangens into what you see finished.

That looks really good. Now you just need to paint that bar across the eyes black.

Uric

ruthardus wrote:yes, but I have notes several spangen origionated Japanese "style" helkms, and yes, they looked ok to the un-historical eye. However, my origional insiration came from a museum pic that had 16 thin pannels in a spiral to form a dome...each with the outside right edge raised up to create a 1/4" fin type line to the point. VERY nice. so I worked out my passion for spangens into what you see finished.

The collapsible veggie steamer style.

InsaneIrish wrote:I've seen these up close. They are both very nicely done.

So have I! Oo la la!

Would you ever consider making just a so-men for someone?

ok, being this is a rather new area for me, a So-men is in the same catagory as the mempo? I looked it up and found sites that list them all together, but what specifically is the difference between a mempo and a so-men? and, to answer your question, my knight said the same thing, just make mempo's and see what people think.

This is a somen:



This is a menpo:




Somen are full face, menpo up to just under the eyes.